“Beatles' early TV appearances on new DVD” plus 1

Beatles' early TV appearances on new DVD

Posted: 10 Sep 2010 12:21 AM PDT

(09-10) 04:00 PDT New York - --

A revised DVD about the Beatles' initial appearances on "The Ed Sullivan Show" is like cracking open a time capsule.

Almost as interesting as the band making its musical introduction to America in 1964 is the context in which it is placed. The DVD presents the programs exactly as they appeared that night - complete with hapless magicians or comedians, commercials that would shame "Mad Men" and illustrations of how the pace of television has changed.

The first night, Feb. 9, 1964, is a landmark in television. An estimated 73 million Americans tuned in, the largest ever for a TV show at the time and three times the number of people who watched the latest "American Idol" finale, according to the Nielsen Co.

The DVD is similar to one made available in 2003 and another from 2006, but with punched-up video and sound quality. "The 4 Complete Ed Sullivan Shows Starring the Beatles," as well as the earlier releases, are from SOFA Entertainment, which owns the archive of Sullivan shows (a Sunday night staple on CBS from 1948 to 1971).

For all the attention paid to that first night in New York, their performances on the following week's show from Miami are much better.

Cutaways to the audience show young girls who can barely stay in their seats from the excitement of it all. Older people look bored, annoyed and clueless to the generational change staring back at them.

The sense that television moves much more quickly today is one of the most interesting finds in the DVD time capsule. Mitzi Gaynor, who was once the princess of musical comedy, has enough time for costume changes. Comic Frank Gorshin's routine with movie star impersonations was interminable.

Producers plainly believed people had an attention span then, certainly much more so than now. Perhaps the knowledge that viewers had to get out of their seats to turn the channel - and then had a couple of choices - was on their mind.

The same is true of the ads. Can you imagine a commercial break with only one commercial?

Maybe it was what they were hawking, but the ads are stunningly unimaginative. What were the Madison Avenue pitch men of the day thinking? Then again, even an image of waves lapping up on a tropical shore couldn't save an instant pineapple upside down cake that was stocked in a supermarket freezer. Cold water detergent All was called "revolutionary."

The DVD also contains Sullivan shows from Feb. 23, 1964, and Sept. 12, 1965, when the Beatles also performed. Twenty songs in all are performed, including three versions of "I Want to Hold Your Hand."

This article appeared on page F - 6 of the San Francisco Chronicle

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Review | Beatles tribute ' Rain at Starlight

Posted: 08 Sep 2010 07:33 PM PDT

By TIMOTHY FINN

The Kansas City Star

The music of the Beatles has been adapted to several forms, from lavish orchestral arrangements to Broadway shows such as "Beatlemania" to Cirque du Soleil's made-for-Vegas production, "Love."

"Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles" is another of those adaptations. The two-hour show, which plays through Sunday at Starlight Theatre, is essentially a re-enactment: a live tribute band, in costumes, performing more than 30 Beatles songs with lots of videos and other graphic elements on three screens. If the intent is to give fans an evening of Beatles music, this show succeeds, especially if you invest in one of the terrace seats, which go for as little as $10.

The band Rain plays most of the songs sufficiently close to the original versions. Each band member also approximates his role's ever-changing appearance, body language and Liverpudlian accent. But we've seen all that before from other Beatles tribute bands, including the local troupe, Liverpool.

"Rain" separates itself from a live-band performance by embellishing the music with a visual presentation, most of which could use some upgrading.

The show begins with two of the video screens appearing as black-and-white televisions, broadcasting footage and a medley of early rock 'n' roll songs leading up to 1964. (On Tuesday, there appeared to be some kind of glitch during the first minute or so; one screen went blank and the sound seemed to go out for several seconds.)

Then we hear someone imitating the voice of Ed Sullivan, and the four fresh-faced boys from England appear on stage, in matching suits and mop-tops, to perform "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" as if it were in the Sullivan studio.

From there, the show takes the crowd on a journey that is loosely chronological: to Shea Stadium, to the Sgt. Pepper era, to the rooftop of Abbey Road studio.

With each set change, the band changes costume, and the P.A. plays more period music while the video screens show more period footage. The best of those interludes, by far, is the one that shows commercials from that era, including one where Barney Rubble and Fred Flintstone shill for Winston cigarettes.

And so the show is paced, until the boys are grown men, married and bearded and on the verge of the biggest break-up in pop music history.

The music in "Rain" more than carries its weight. You can pick at the details — some songs, such as "A Day in the Life," are edited slightly; some solos are watered-down — but for the most part, the band succeeds in delivering the music as it is remembered.

You could also pick at the chronology: "Girl" is performed after "Hello, Goodbye" and "I Am the Walrus"; and some of the news footage is a tad out of order. And the bass player is noticeably right-handed.

But none of that takes much away from the show. What detracted most for me were the visuals, some of which are primitive and so literal at times they look satirical. During "Strawberry Fields," the screens show a cascade of poorly drawn strawberries. During "When I'm Sixty-Four," the number "64" beams off the video screens many times. During "Give Peace a Chance," the screens beam … a peace sign. And the animation that represents the film "Hard Day's Night" is almost laughable.

Granted, the show was obviously prohibited from using real footage of the Beatles. For example, the Shea Stadium scenes shows only fans, not the band. I suppose it would be anachronistic to use the kind of slick, high-tech animation that's available now. Perhaps the point is to use visuals that would have been created during that era. If so, mission accomplished. But it looks more like no one wants to invest in an upgrade.

It doesn't help that the video screens that flank the stage are a little to small for a place the size of Starlight, at least if you're sitting toward the back.

Nonetheless, the opening-night crowd of nearly 4,000 (the place was less than half full) acted like it enjoyed every minute, though several times the band had to encourage people to get up and dance.

For most of the night, people seemed content to sit back, enjoy the weather and sing along to more than two hours of songs that have become as elemental to their lives as the weather itself.

the show
"Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles" continues at 8 p.m. nightly through Sunday at Starlight Theatre. Tickets are $10-$85 at kcstarlight .com or Ticketmaster.

The Beatles

Friday, September 10, 2010